Eating Clouds

Summary: The story of a little boy with an extraordinary love for books and his adventures through both reality an imagination.

Chapter 1 : Dancing Dust

Ozzy narrowed his curious little eyes
and looked up to the highest shelf. Around him dust flew through the chamber, a
light coming from an enormous lamp, attached to only three strings to the
ceiling, softly touched the particles.
The beam of light swung back and forth, throwing shadows over the piles of
books and papers which were stalled around in the back of the bookstore.

The little boy, who stood amidst all
this, nodded shortly to himself, as if he’d made a decision. He knew the shop
owner wouldn’t approve of his plan, that’s why he figured he shouldn’t tell him
about it.

That’s why the little boy stepped as
nonchalant as possible towards the enormous bookshelf, which covered most of
the wall, from the floor up to the ceiling.

Gathering up all the power he had in his
tiny arms Ozzy lifted up the ladder, which leaned against the side of the
bookshelf. He couldn’t lift it up very high, causing the ends of the ladder to
scrape over the wooden floor, but he didn’t really care. He’d just put a book
over the scratches to cover up, so the old fart wouldn’t notice.

Ozzy put down the ladder at the front of
the bookshelf, and the thud made the lamp swing around dangerously. The little
boy looked to the left, to the front of the store. The old fart lay, as usual,
with this head on the counter, sleeping. Passer-by’s could see him through the
front window when crossing the street, which made it no surprise that the only
regular the store had was a ten-year-old, whom didn’t even have money to buy
something.

Finally having positioned the ladder,
Ozzy climbed up with hand and feet. The gaps between the steps were too wide for him to cross at
once, so it took some time to get to the top. When he got there he had to wipe
the dust from his trousers, since the ladder was really, really old and barely
used. He sighed, placed his hands on his hips and started reading the titles of
the books in front of him. He had to turn his head about ninety degrees, since
all the titles were written vertically.

The ladder under his feet started to
shake, as if it was suffocating by the weight of the little boy, but the boy
himself didn’t really pay attentions. He had other business to attend to, or so
he figured.

“Hmmm…” he grumbled out loud, scratching
an invisible beard on his chin. It was a gesture he’d copied from the shop
owner, who’s facial hair was really in a league of its own. Ozzy thought beards
and moustaches were rather strange. In fact, facial hair seemed unnecessary to
him. Hair itself seemed weird.

The little boy glanced over to the
counter, where he could see the body of the owner go up and down with every
breath, accompanied by soft snoring.

Then he stretched out his arm to touch a
book which he’d seen on an even higher shelf. Some books were just so old the
title had faded away throughout the years, as well as the colours. The book Ozzy
was looking for had a faded dark blue cover, with the title written in a colour
which used to be gold.

He smiled happily, and descended back to
the ground, the book under his arms. The ladder itself let out soft cries, as
if a few screws were starting to get loose. The boy wondered what would happen
if he were to fall down, but the thought that this could actually become
reality didn’t come to mind.

Both his feet on the ground, Ozzy
decided there was no need to put the ladder back in place, since there were
barely any customers and not even the shop owner himself hung around this part
of the store. The dancing dust particles were proof of that.

The little boy made haste towards a
heavy slide door. As he progressed through the store papers flew around his
ears and the shelfs trembled with every step. Even a little boy seemed enough
to make the entire building collapse.

The shop owner had put a paper on the
door saying ‘Staff Only’, but that didn’t bother Ozzy. He carefully put down
the blue book on the ground and grabbed the doorknob with both hands. With one
foot against the wall he managed to pull it to the opposite side. There was a
lot of scraping and scarring coming from the floor as a new space behind the
door was revealed, which led to a special place.

Ozzy stepped inside and searched with
his hand for a switch. With some flickering, light emerged from three TL –
pipes attached to the ceiling, a modern concept in comparison to the old
dangerous lamps inside the store.

The little boy grabbed his book and
entered the new space, leaving the door open behind him. The shop owner
wouldn’t wake up for at least another hour and by the time he would, Ozzy would
be long gone.

The special place was a reading chamber,
were there stood a big bookcase with special books, personal belongings of the
shop owner. In the middle stood a special table with a special bureau lamp. It
belonged to the shop owner’s wife, who was an artist. After her death the shop
owner had made some slight changes and turned it into the perfect reading spot.
He did leave the inkpot, which she used for her last work. The first time Ozzy
entered the special reading chamber to
read a forbidden book he’d asked about the little pot. The shop owner wasn’t
mad about the fact he entered the secret reading chamber, but more about the
thought the little boy might touch his beloved inkpot.

“Don’t you dare touch that, you little
brat!”

With a loud thud the blue book came down
on the small table, and the little boy turned
on the small lamp. After a slight struggle Ozzy managed to climb onto
the chair, which was supposed to be for grown-ups. It was custom-made, perfectly measured for the
shop owner’s wife, who was probably half-giant.

But Ozzy read grown-up books, which
meant he could sit in the grown-up chair. He’d never read a children’s book again. Ever.

With big eyes the little boy awed over
the cover of the blue book in front of him. He was almost certain there
wouldn’t be any pictures in it, but he still wanted to read it. The fact it had
been stored at the top shelf of the bookcase meant it held many secrets, things
most common folk wouldn’t know. Ozzy wanted to learn all about these kinds of
things, especially the uncommon things.

He sat on his knees to get a better view
and then opened the mysterious book. As
always he was greeted by a cloud of dust and the smell of old papers.

Leaning on his hand Ozzy started reading
the first page, but turned it after a couple minutes. Foreword of the author. Always boring. This one had a length of two pages. Two pages!

The little boy glanced shortly at the
index and continued till he’d found the first chapter, which included a
picture, to his surprise. A very beautiful picture. An illustration of a man
wearing green trousers and a red sweater and a purple hat. His cheeks were
reddened and his dark eyes had an excited twinkle in them. Ozzy frowned, and
leaned forward till his nose almost touched the paper. The man had wings. Weird.

After some staring the little boy turned
the page, and on the next there was only text in really, really tiny letters.
Satisfied he started reading. He let himself get dragged in by the words, which
always happened when he was reading. His surroundings seemed to fade away, and
without warning he ended up in a place where time was not of the essence. There
was no dancing dust, no old papers, no unstable ladders or lamps that could
crush you if you weren’t careful enough. Ozzy turned page after page, reading
the interesting bits and skipping the boring ones.

This was the way he spent most of his
days in the bookstore, from opening till closing, for as long as he could
remember. In the beginning, he only hung around the front part of the store,
where books were stored out on tables with price tickets attached to the. The
little boy got ‘expelled’ from this area after a customer fell over the boy
laying in the middle of the path with a book in front of his face. He then had
to sit in the children’s corner of the store, where the books which children his age were supposed to
read were also stored. But it wasn’t really a place to read. The spot was
separated from the rest of the store by a few bricks made of sponge-material.
There stood a few beanbags and there lay some toys on the floor.

The beanbags were nice, but not ideal
for Ozzy’s taste of books, which were mostly around three hundred pages or
more. It just wasn’t comfortable. That’s why he ended up leaning with his back
against the wall. He ignored the warning the shop owner gave him about reading
books above his age. He would be expelled from the store entirely, which seemed
ridiculous to Ozzy. He once asked the man about it.

“How is it that someone can be ‘too
young’ to read a particular book?”

Shop owner sighed and asked himself why
the boy had to ask the complicated questions first. “Well, some writers just
specialize themselves in a certain group of readers and the age range in that
category. You can cry about it all you want, kid, but that’s how it is.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense” the
boy had replied. “It’s all the same letters, the same words and language. Every
person who can read should be able to.”

“That’s not really the point” the shop
owner had sighed again. “It’s about understanding what’s been written. There’s
no point in reading a text and not understanding what it’s about.”

The little boy had been silent for a
while. He’d scratched his imaginary beard again. “Maybe not. I don’t always
understand every word either, but there are dictionaries to deal with that
problem. I learn while reading. So I can read grown-up books, because I’ll
learn more words. I’ll learn more vocabulearn.”

“It’s ‘vocabulary’, to be exact” the old
man had mumbled.

“That’s what I said” Ozzy quickly said.
The shop owner had rolled his eyes and grumbled behind his moustache, but
didn’t comment any further.

summerstone:
Seriously this is one of the best books I've ever read. The plot is intriguing, I love the narrative style. Its very descriptive and unique, with minimal cliches. It makes for a great read and the sequels are amazing. Totally worth reading. ^^ That's me trying to be professional. But in all hones...

John Reed:
Seadrias masterfully captures the impressiveness and complex scope that a science fiction novel should provide while carefully crafting an entire universe that will leave a reader in awe from start to finish. The only flaw I could find is that I wish I could have read more. This book is certainly...

dd1226:
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Deleted User:
This is a very clever story in the style of 19th century (and turn of the century) Gothic writing, very reminiscent of Stevenson's The Body Snatchers or even of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (less so of Frankenstein itself, since the author is more minimalist than Shelley's florid, Romantic rhetoric). ...

Alex Rushmer:
This was not what I expected, but I enjoyed it a lot Malfoy was always one of the characters that I liked a lot, so I like that a lot of this happens between him and Colette. I read the first couple chapters, and I enjoyed your writing style and am excited to see where you take this story. My com...

Felisa Yoder Osburn:
I really enjoyed the story. Civil War stories are some of my favorites and the intertwining of the past with current times was wonderful. I look forward to reading the next stories.

Nymeria:
Really can't get enough of this story. It flows well, it captivates the reader from page 1, and throws you into such a well-written, well conceptualized world that you'll believe it's real. Everything in the book is meshed together really well. From character backgrounds to plot twists, you can t...

Schaelz:
I was intrigued from the second I started reading, and it kept my interest the whole way through. Chelsea has a way with words that will enchant you until the very end. She is very poetic with the way she mixes genres and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The main character is also very relat...

Hudson:
Your story was fantastic Erin! The Rising Sun was one of the first stories I read on Inkitt, and I have to say I don't regret the three to four days I spent pouring through the story.Probably the biggest strength I see in your writing is your characterisation of Eliana, Oriens, and the rest of th...

Alice Liu:
Whoa! I've been wondering how would the Maurauders react to Harry's life and here we go! YOU ARE THE BEST! All the characters are consistent with their personalities shown in the book! I love how you compare Lily with Molly and it's definitely true for her being a mother! I wish Peter comes have ...

ga1984:
I really enjoyed it! Characters were deep and plot was pretty complex. A bit on the violent side but it doesnt detract from the story. Very dark but situations make sense. Ends kinda abruptly and later chapters will need some editing work. I'm assuming there's more in the works?

Usagi Kita:
This story is emotional from beginning to end. You get to watch the characters struggle and grow, maturing in different ways so that they come to be the people they are meant to be. Inea is insanely adorable, and his antics made me laugh more than once, and Kaedon is perfect for him in so many wa...